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At this point, I am planning to draw on Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online/Whole-Hearted Child for homeschooling resources when Charlotte is older. (And still try to integrate CM ideas/principles into our days even now!) We've been very relaxed to this point, just reading lots of books, playing, going outside, helping me do stuff, etc. But now that she is older I am wanting a bit more structure (for me mostly!) and to do a greater variety of hands-on activities. So I'm planning to start the prepatory curriculum at www.letteroftheweek.com this coming week.

FTR, I'm not really so concerned about teaching my dd at this point... I'm hoping that it is a gentle introduction to more "purposeful" learning times, and is just a fun time for us to connect each day, and to give us concepts to talk about/think about throughout the week.

OK, just figured out why I wasn't drawn to BFIAR at first, though now I'm reconsidering... I am really wanting to integrate hands-on activities with the stories, and when I looked at BFIAR before it seemed very "talky" which I already do with my dd all the time. And we already regularly read at least half the books on the booklist. So I'm just wondering how much hands-on stuff it does, as compared to Letter of the Week and Bible & Rhyme... Does my question make sense?

Kind of OT, but I'm looking to start LOTW's Sound of the Week very soon with my two! My 2 1/2 yo is VERY interested in numbers and letters (thanks to big bro!)>

__________________

TONYA

Mommy to DS, 12 YO and DD, 10 YO and DD, 6 YO

and angel babe

His joy IS my strength! Live a life of HIS purpose

How long will it go on? If you keep living the way you are living, then you will keep living the way you are living. If you want your life to change, then CHANGE your life. Live differently, for repentance is a way of life. -- DH!

We did LOTW two falls ago with my then dd3. I also printed out the Bible inRhyme pages and just added it to my poster. The kids enjoyed it, although we only made it through about half the alphabet before we were all bored. I didn't do all the extra book suggestions. Like you, I wanted to create an opportunity for establishing a "learning" time. I guess it didn't work since we quit. This last year we did BFIAR and enjoyed it. I mostly used it as a book list. We did some of the activities. I agree much of it was talky. For [u]Ask Mr. Bear[u] we made puppets out of felt and popsicle sticks so the kids could retell the story. One of the activities was to make a sorting game of all the animals in the stories. We didn't do this, but I might the next time I use it, with my younger children. HTH you some. I know it's kinda rambly

If Charlotte watches Mister Rogers, you might see if they have corresponding activities to go with the shows online. They used to sell a book of activities that coordinated with the shows, but I think they do that online now. I used to have the book, and it seemed geared for daycares who need planned learning activities, so it might have just enough stucture for you right now.

I just pulled out my B4FIAR book and yes, it is talky isn't it (but then again, I like to discuss stuff ). But I have found it to be a great springboard for other ideas, and we like the classification cards, and we did a cut out cardboard bear for Jesse Bear and I made little clothes for him out of scraps of fabric -- ds1 really enjoyed that. For [/i]The Big Green Pocketbook[/i] we used a green back pack that we had around, and ds1 loved it -- he found various items to place into it (since boys can't have pocketbooks -- but that gave us an opportunity to talk about why mommies and girls have pocketbooks and boys don't).

There is a lot of CM exploration and observation built in, with some of the science lessons (i.e., with The Runaway Bunny you get to look at a tree and see what insects and other critters live there).

Thank you for sharing the HUbbard link. I have been using LOTW and its just not very interesting for us. DD knows her letters and many of her sounds and it just move so s-l-o-w-l-y for us. I like the variety of activities and movement within the Hubbard plan. I had the same issue with BFIAR, it just seemed so talky for me. We also talk through all our books anyhow and at the same time I want her to just be able to enjoy a story for story's sake. Ya know?

On the FIAR messageboards, you can get a lot of ideas for more hands-on activities. I did some FIAR with Zach, and I used the messageboards a lot, because I wanted hands-on. I haven't looked at the BFIAR messageboard much, but I'm sure you can find ideas there, too.

i was coming here to post about this very same thing! charlotte is almost the exact same age as my dd, and i also wanted to do something a little more structured starting this year. i am planning on ordering the BFIAR stuff within the next few weeks - but i also wanted to draw on some other curriculum to learn letters, numbers, etc. i have tried just teaching them to her off and on, and i'm just not that great at it...i need someone else's ideas to help me out. i have looked at letter of the week some...i am going to go check that out along with the other site - thanks!

i don't know much about charlotte mason, besides that it is literature based. i would like to learn more about it...

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